Overview[edit]
The current Director-General and Chief Executive is John Chipman. The
Chairman of the Council is Francois Heisbourg, a former Director. Sir
Michael Howard, the British military historian, is President Emeritus.
Sir Michael founded the institute together with the British Labour
M.P.
Denis HealeyDenis Healey (Defence Secretary 1964–1970 and Chancellor of the
Exchequer 1974–1979) and journalist Alastair Buchan.[2]
The IISS describes itself as a:

primary source of accurate, objective information on international
strategic issues for politicians and diplomats, foreign affairs
analysts, international business, economists, the military, defence
commentators, journalists, academics and the informed public. The
Institute owes no allegiance to any government, or to any political or
other organisation.

The Institute claims 2,500 Individual Members and 450 Corporate and
Institutional Members from more than 100 countries.
Based in London, the IISS is both a private company limited by
guarantee in UK law and a registered charity.[3] It has branches in
Washington, D.C.Washington, D.C. (IISS-US) and in
SingaporeSingapore (IISS-Asia), with
charitable status in each jurisdiction, and in Manama, Bahrain
(IISS-Middle East).
Research[edit]
The Institute’s work is built on the activities of its 11 research
programmes. Dozens of experts and consulting experts contribute to the
institute’s studies. Research includes work under seven thematic
programmes: Armed Conflict; Future Conflict and Cyber Security;
Defence and Military Analysis; Economic and Energy Security;
Geo-economics and Strategy; Non-Proliferation and Nuclear Policy;
Security and Development. There are also four active regional security
programmes: Asia-Pacific; Middle East and the Gulf; South Asia; US
Foreign Policy & Transatlantic Affairs.
Notable former employees include HR McMaster, United States National
Security Advisor, and diplomat Rose Gottemoeller, currently Deputy
Secretary General of NATO. Orwell Prize-winning academic and
journalist
Anatol LievenAnatol Lieven also worked at the Institute, as did James
Steinberg, former US Deputy Secretary of State.The institute has
worked with governments, defence ministries and global organisations
including NATO and the European Union.
Publications[edit]
The IISS publishes The Military Balance, an annual assessment of
nations' military capabilities. Since 2017 it has also published
Military Balance+, an online database on the same subject.
Other publications include the Armed Conflict Database; Survival, a
journal on global politics and strategy; Strategic Survey, the annual
review of world affairs; and Strategic Comments, online analysis of
topical issues in international affairs. Since its inception the
Institute has published the Adelphi series of books, covering topical
strategic issues. Recent editions have covered subjects such as
Chinese cyber power, conflict in Ukraine, negotiating with armed
groups and the Iraq War.
In 2011 the Institute published the FARC files – documents captured
from the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia that shed light on the
movement’s inner workings. It regularly publishes one-off briefing
papers and dossiers.
Events[edit]
Since 2002 the Institute has hosted the annual IISS Shangri-La
Dialogue in Singapore, a conference on Asia–Pacific security issues
featuring heads of state, defense ministers and security experts from
the region and around the world. In 2017 Australian Prime Minister
Malcolm Turnbull said: “The Shangri-La Dialogue has grown to become
one of the world’s great strategic gatherings.”
The annual IISS Manama Dialogue, held in the Kingdom of Bahrain, sees
global heads of state and high-ranking ministers discuss defense and
political issues related to the Middle East. In 2015 Egyptian
president Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi described the dialogue as a “major
regional event focusing on regional security issues and everything
that impacts upon them”.
In recent years the Institute has hosted smaller conferences including
the Bahrain Bay Forum and NATO transformation seminar, and regularly
holds debates and panel discussions at its offices around the world.
History[edit]
Founded in 1958, with its original focus nuclear deterrence and arms
control, the IISS has strong establishment links, with former US and
British government officials among its members. The institute claims
that it "was hugely influential in setting the intellectual structures
for managing the Cold War."
Raymond L. Garthoff wrote in 2004:[4]

In 1959 the ISS issued a pamphlet on the "military balance" between
the Soviet Union and NATO. It was unfortunately replete with errors,
having been put together from published sources of widely varying
quality. I called this to the attention of Alastair Buchan, the
director of the institute, who was quite disturbed. A new version was
issued in November 1960, much more correct and accurate, though still
not up to the latest intelligence. Again, I called this to Buchan's
attention, and he undertook to check out with British authorities what
became annual issuances.

The second issue appeared under the title "The Communist Bloc and the
Free World: The Military Balance 1960".
Controversy[edit]
In 2016,
The GuardianThe Guardian reported that IISS "has been accused of
jeopardising its independence after leaked documents showed it has
secretly received £25m from the Bahraini royal family", noting that
leaked "documents reveal that IISS and Bahrain’s rulers specifically
agreed to keep the latter’s funding for the Manama Dialogues
secret".[5][6] The IISS did not dispute the authenticity of the leaked
documents or deny receiving funding from Bahrain, but issued a
response stating that "[a]ll IISS contractual agreements, including
those with host governments, contain a clause asserting the
Institute’s absolute intellectual and operational independence as an
international organisation that does not participate in any manner of
advocacy."[7] The Middle East Eye subsequently reported that IISS may
have received nearly half of its total income from Bahraini sources in
some years.[8]
In 2017,
BreitbartBreitbart reported that IISS had removed the Open Society
Foundation from a list of funders on its website. IISS responded that
"As well as the Open Society Foundation, we also accidentally removed
the Carnegie, McArthur, and James Foundations, as well as a number of
governments and corporate supporters, when we updated the page ten
days ago. Your question brought this to our attention and the listing
has now been corrected." Subsequently, IISS posted information
suggesting that
Open Society FoundationOpen Society Foundation had given £100,000 to
£499,999 (between US$130,000 and US$650,000) to the institution. [9]
Directors[edit]